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Morning plenary speaker:
Morning plenary speaker:
Dyana Harrelson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics , Hope College
Title: The Geometry of EvenQuads
Abstract: "How can geometry be hidden in a card game?"
EvenQuads is a SET-like card game published by the Association for Women in Mathematics. The game consists of 64 cards, where 8–10 cards are laid out and players race to find quads: sets of four cards satisfying a particular pattern. Mathematically, the cards can be viewed as the points of the six-dimensional binary vector space ℤ₂⁶, and a quad is an affine plane in ℤ₂⁶.
Two natural questions arise during play:
How many cards must be laid out to guarantee a quad?
What is the maximum number of quads possible in a fixed number of laid-out cards?
In this talk, I will explain the rules of EvenQuads, introduce the underlying geometry, and demonstrate how ideas from linear algebra, finite geometry, and combinatorics can be used to answer these questions.
Biography: Dyana Harrelson is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and serves as a Counselor to the national Pi Mu Epsilon organization. She is passionate about sharing the joy and accessibility of mathematics with a wide range of audiences, from undergraduate students to the broader community.
At Hope College, she teaches courses in calculus and probability as well as a general education course centered on puzzles, games, and mathematical exploration. Her teaching emphasizes curiosity, pattern recognition, and the idea that mathematics is something to be experienced, not just computed. She is particularly interested in helping students who may feel hesitant about mathematics discover confidence and enjoyment in the subject.
Beyond the classroom, Harrelson is actively involved in community outreach. She co-organizes Julia Robinson Math Festivals in the greater Holland area several times each year, creating opportunities for K–12 students and families to engage with hands-on, collaborative mathematics. These events reflect her broader commitment to building inclusive mathematical spaces where participants of all backgrounds can experience success and wonder.
Trained as a probabilist, her academic background lies in stochastic processes and probability theory. More recently, her work has shifted toward recreational mathematics, where she explores the interplay between structure, combinatorics, and play. In particular, she has been studying the SET-inspired game EvenQuads, investigating both its mathematical properties and its potential as a tool for engagement and discovery.
Afternoon plenary speaker:
Afternoon plenary speaker:
Erica Flapan, Emerita Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Pomona College
Title: An Introduction to Spatial Graph Theory
Abstract: Spatial graph theory developed in the early 1980’s when topologists began using the tools of knot theory to study graphs embedded in 3-dimensional space. Later, this area came to be known as spatial graph theory to distinguish it from the study of abstract graphs. Much of the current work in spatial graph theory can trace its roots back either to the surprising result that every embedding of the complete graph on 6 vertices must contain a pair of linked triangles or to the study of symmetries of non-rigid molecules. This talk will present the history of spatial graph theory and survey some of the current trends in the field. No background is required to understand the talk.
Biography: Erica Flapan was a professor at Pomona College from 1986 to 2018. From 2019 through 2024, she was the Editor in Chief of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society. In 2011, Flapan won the Mathematical Association of America’s Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Then in 2012, she was selected as an inaugural fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In 2018, she won the M. Gwenyth Humphreys Award of Association for Women in Mathematics for Mentorship of Undergraduate Women in Mathematics.
She has published extensively in topology and its applications to chemistry and molecular biology. In addition to her many research papers, she published an article in the College Mathematics Journal entitled “How to be a good teacher is an undecidable problem,” which was reprinted in “The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012”. The first book she wrote was entitled “When Topology Meets Chemistry”. Flapan also co-authored a textbook entitled “Number Theory: A Lively Introduction with Proofs, Applications, and Stories” with James Pommersheim and Tim Marks, and most recently she wrote an elementary book entitled “Knots, Molecules, and the Universe: An Introduction to Topology.” She also co-edited multiple books, including one entitled “Applications of Knot Theory” with Dorothy Buck, and another entitled “Topology and Geometry of Biopolymers” with Helen Wong.
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